He thanked the world’s peacemakers, saying that they deserve praise for working, often behind the scenes, tirelessly, thanklessly and armed only “with the weapons of prayer and forgiveness”. Peace marchers carrying rainbow banners released blue balloons in a sunny but cold St Peter’s Square as the pope spoke. Earlier, in his homily, the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics decried “hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor”. He also denounced “the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated capitalism, various forms of terrorism, and criminality”.

Benedict said he was convinced of “humanity’s innate vocation to peace” despite many problems and setbacks. A personal relationship with God could help all believers deal with what he called the “darkness and anguish” that sometimes defines human existence. He pointed up, “This is the inner peace that we want in the midst of events in history that are sometimes tumultuous and confused, events that sometimes leave us shaken”. In his full message for World Day of Peace, the pope called for a new economic model and ethical regulations for markets, saying the global financial crisis was proof that capitalism doesn’t protect society’s weakest members. He also warned that food insecurity was a threat to peace in some parts of the world. The pope strongly reaffirmed Roman Catholic opposition to gay marriage, stating that heterosexual marriage had an indispensable role in society.

Philip Pullella

Angus MacSwan

I originally saw this on the Huff Post (see here for their post), as the wording chosen by Benedict Ratzinger was very precise and damning to crapitalism and the warfare state, I wanted to see the original post to make certain that the same emphasis was there. In short, it was. This means that all of the Catholics and Orthodox attempting to link us with rightwing “conservative” movements aren’t only wrong, they’re evil; they’re in opposition to direct teachings from Pope Benedict and HH. Both B16 and HH believe that the crapitalist nostrums of the Hard Right are fraudulent. This means, for us as Orthodox, that Victor Potapov, James Paffhausen, Rod Dreher, Patrick Reardon, Josiah Trenham, Alexander Webster, Terrence Mattingly, and all those who agree with them are outside the ambit of Christ’s Church as far as its social teaching is concerned.